Assessment of Groundwater Quality Using Water Quality Indices: A Case Study of Paliganj Distributary, Bihar, India
Received: 22 December 2021 | Revised: 6 January 2022 | Accepted: 9 January 2022 | Online: 12 February 2022
Corresponding author: K. Praveen
Abstract
Groundwater quality evaluation in the command area of Paliganj distributary of the Sone irrigation scheme in India was carried out during two different seasons in the year 2020, namely pre-monsoon, i.e. during March, and post-monsoon, i.e. during October. Forty groundwater samples were obtained from hand pumps and dug wells in the study area during the pre- and post-monsoon seasons. The chemical characteristics of groundwater samples were determined according to American Public Health Association approved process. Twelve parameters, namely, pH, EC, TDS, Ca, Mg, Na, F, SO4, K, Cl, and HCO3 were used to compute the water quality based on the weighted arithmetic water quality index method. In the study area, Ca2+-Mg+-HCO3−, and Ca2+-Mg+-Na+-HCO3- were the dominant hydro-chemical facies. All the samples were found to belong to the excellent to good category for drinking purposes during the pre-monsoon period. However, during the post-monsoon season, only 75% of the samples fell into the excellent to good group, while the remaining 25% fell into the poor for drinking purposes category. By analyzing through the irrigation quality index, 80% of the samples are considered highly suitable for irrigation and the remaining 20% come under the medium category. Thus, it was seen that the majority of groundwater samples are suitable for drinking and irrigation purposes, although groundwater in some portions of the area had high salinity and the Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), showing that it is unsuitable for irrigation and requires adequate drainage.
Keywords:
Chemical parameters, Water Quality Index, Weighted Arithmetic Index, Irrigation Water Quality indexDownloads
References
V. Smil, Long-Range Perspectives on Inorganic Fertilizers in Global Agriculture 1999 Travis P. Hignett Lecture. Muscle Shoals, AL, USA: International Fertilizer Development Center, 1999.
Guide Manual: Water and Wastewater Analysis. New Delhi, India: Central Pollution Control Board, 2013.
L. F. Konikow and E. Kendy, "Groundwater depletion: A global problem," Hydrogeology Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 317–320, Nov. 2005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-004-0411-8
N. Diersing, Water Quality: Frequently asked questions. Florida Keys, FL, USA: Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, 2009.
A. Banerjee, P. Singh, and K. Pratap, "Hydrogeological component assessment for water resources management of semi-arid region: a case study of Gwalior, M.P., India," Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 9, no. 18, Aug. 2016, Art. no. 711. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-016-2736-8
I. Akoteyon, A. Omotayo, O. Soladoye, and H. O. Olaoye, "Determination of water quality index and suitability of Urban River for municipal water supply in Lagos-Nigeria," European Journal of Scientific Research, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 263–271, Mar. 2011.
M. Atikul Islam et al., "Investigation of Groundwater Quality and Its Suitability for Drinking and Agricultural Use in the South Central Part of the Coastal Region in Bangladesh," Exposure and Health, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 27–41, Nov. 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-016-0220-z
N. Bharti and D. Katyal, "Water Quality Indices Used for Surface Water Vulnerability Assessment," International Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 154–173, Sep. 2011.
L. Nhamo et al., "An assessment of groundwater use in irrigated agriculture using multi-spectral remote sensing," Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, vol. 115, Nov. 2020, Art. no. 102810. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2019.102810
M. A. Keerio, N. Bhatti, S. R. Samo, A. Saand, and A. A. Bhuriro, "Ground Water Quality Assessment of Daur Taluka, Shaheed Benazir Abad," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 2785–2789, Apr. 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.1925
R. K. Horton, "An Index Number System for Rating Water Quality," Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation, vol. 37, pp. 300–306, 1965.
R. M. Brown, N. I. McClellan, R. A. Deininger, and R. G. Tozer, "A water quality index-do we dare," Water and Sewage Works, vol. 117, no. 10, 1970.
A. C. M. Meireles, E. M. de Andrade, L. C. G. Chaves, H. Frischkorn, and L. A. Crisostomo, "A new proposal of the classification of irrigation water," Revista Ciência Agronômica, vol. 41, pp. 349–357, Sep. 2010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S1806-66902010000300005
C. S. Shalumon et al., "Analysis of uranium and other water quality parameters in drinking water sources of 5 districts of Kerala in southern India and potability estimation using water quality indexing method," HydroResearch, vol. 4, pp. 38–46, Jan. 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydres.2021.04.003
Guidelines for drinking-water quality, 2nd ed. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO, 1993.
Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 20th ed., Washington DC, USA: American Public Health Association/American Water Works Association, 1998, pp. 235–237.
N. Kumar, A. A. Mahessar, S. A. Memon, K. Ansari, and A. L. Qureshi, "Impact Assessment of Groundwater Quality using WQI and Geospatial tools: A Case Study of Islamkot, Tharparkar, Pakistan," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 5288–5294, Feb. 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.3289
R. S. Ayers and D. W. Westcot, Water quality for agriculture. Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization, 1985.
C. Simsek and O. Gunduz, "IWQ Index: A GIS-Integrated Technique to Assess Irrigation Water Quality," Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, vol. 128, no. 1, pp. 277–300, Feb. 2007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-006-9312-8
A. N. Laghari, Z. A. Siyal, D. K. Bangwar, M. A. Soomro, G. D. Walasai, and F. A. Shaikh, "Groundwater Quality Analysis for Human Consumption: A Case Study of Sukkur City, Pakistan," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 2616–2620, Feb. 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.1768
BIS: 10500. Indian Standard. Driniking Water-Specification. BIS, 2012.
D. Sukumaran, R .Saha, and R. C. Saxena, "Ground Water Quality Index of Patna, the Capital City of Bihar, India," American Journal of Water Resources, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 17–21, Oct. 2015.
D. Verma, J. Mandal, R. Padbhushan, S. Kumar, and M. Lal, "Water quality index for the assessment of groundwater quality in the Sabour block of Bhagalpur district, Bihar," International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Biotechnology, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 467–472, May 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5958/2230-732X.2016.00061.9
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2022 K. Praveen; L. B. Roy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
